Graduate school

See also

Research at the Department for Continuing Education

The Department has an active interdisciplinary research community, particularly with respect to public engagement and practitioner-based initiatives which build on the research interests of our academic staff and over 80 research students.

Animal Behaviour: An Introduction (Online)

Overview

Why do animals behave the way they do? In this course we will look at the full range of behaviours found in the animal kingdom, from simple escape behaviours to complex tool use and their evolution.

The study of animal behaviour, less than 100 years old as a scientific discipline, has demonstrated that behaviours, similar to anatomy and physiology, have been shaped by evolution, while at the same time many behaviours show an astounding flexibility that allow individuals to learn and change throughout their life.

Thus the study of animal behaviour is not only shedding light on the range of fascinating behaviours found in nature, but it also increases our understanding of our animal companions and ultimately of ourselves. In this course, we will explore of a wide range of behaviours, while at the same time getting a comprehensive introduction to evolutionary thinking. During the course we will be using examples from a broad range of animal groups including, foraging in spiders, social behaviours in ants, learning in dogs and tool use in birds and mammals.

For information on how the courses work, and a link to our course demonstration site, please click here.

Programme details

1. Introduction to the study and definition of animal behaviour

What is the study of animal behaviour?

Tinbergen’s four questions

The sensory and nervous system

2. Evolution, genes and natural selection

Darwin and Wallace

Genetics and DNA

Natural selection in action

Genes and behaviour

Adaption

3. Foraging behaviour

Types of foraging

Camouflage and mimicry

Trade-off and co-evolution

4. Measuring and analysing animal behaviour

Steps involved in studying behaviour

Observing and recording animal behaviour

The risk of anthropomorphism

Using video and online resources in behaviour research

Finding and understanding scientific papers

5. Signals, communication and sexual selection

Animal senses

Signals and stimuli

Animal communication

Sexual selection and mate choice

Mating systems and strategies

6. Kin selection, inclusive fitness and social behaviour

Types of altruism

Group-living and cooperative breeding

The ants and their societies

7. Decision-making and evolutionary stable strategies

Long- and short-term decision-making

Motivation and the mechanisms of decision-making

Evolutionary stable strategies and game theory

Inter-individual conflict and the Hawk–Dove game

Cooperation, the Prisoner’s Dilemma and tit-for-tat strategies

8. Artificial selection, domestic animals and animal welfare

Domestication

Applied ethology and animal welfare

Getting information from animals on their welfare and suffering

Pets and human–animal interactions

9. Learning and memory

Habituation and sensitisation

Associative learning – classical conditioning

Associative learning – instrumental learning

Social learning

Higher forms of learning and animal teaching

Memory and brain structures

10. Animal cognition and tool use

Problem-solving, insight learning and intelligence

Examples of problem-solving in invertebrates

Examples of problem-solving in birds and mammals

Tool use

Self-awareness and theory of mind

Recommended reading

To participate in this course you will need to have regular access to the Internet and you will need to buy the following book:

Certification

To earn credit (CATS points) for your course you will need to register and pay an additional £10 fee for each course you enrol on. You can do this by ticking the relevant box at the bottom of the enrolment form or when enrolling online. If you do not register when you enrol, you have up until the course start date to register and pay the £10 fee.

Coursework is an integral part of all online courses and everyone enrolled will be expected to do coursework, but only those who have registered for credit will be awarded CATS points for completing work at the required standard. If you are enrolled on the Certificate of Higher Education you need to indicate this on the enrolment form but there is no additional registration fee.

Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.

All students who successfully complete this course, whether registered for credit or not, are eligible for a Certificate of Completion. Completion consists of submitting both course assignments and actively participating in the course forums. Certificates will be available, online, for those who qualify after the course finishes.

IT requirements

This course is delivered online; to participate you must to be familiar with using a computer for purposes such as sending email and searching the Internet. You will also need regular access to the Internet and a computer meeting our recommended minimum computer specification.

Fees

Tutor

Thomas is a zoologist who has studied spiders, insects and worms for more than 15 years in both temperate and tropical climates. In addition to his teaching for OUDCE, he is a lecturer in biological sciences at St. Anne's College.

Course aims

This course aims to explore the variety of different behaviours found in a broad range of animal groups, using a scientific and evolutionary approach.

This course will enable participants to:

Achieve an overview of the different types of animal behaviours and understand how proximate and ultimate explanations can be used to provide a theoretical framework.

Understand how evolutionary thinking and the scientific analytical approach are applied to the study of animal behaviour.

Apply this knowledge to analyse and understand behaviour in both wild and domestic animals.

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course students will be expected to :

Be familiar with a range of different types of behaviours found in both lower and higher animals and understand the theoretical framework used to explain evolution of these behaviours.

Understand how evolution has shaped behaviours in the long term through genetic adaptations, and in the short term, through enabling modifications of set behaviours by learning and behavioural flexibility.

Have the skills to analyse behaviours and understand the functional reasons behind the expression of these behaviours

By the end of this course students will be expected to have gained the following skills:

The ability to measure and analyse animal behaviours.

The ability to apply evolutionary thinking to the analysis of animal behaviour.

Research Skills: 1) The ability to read and evaluate scientific papers in animal behaviour. 2) The ability to understand and design experiments to test hypothesis in animal behaviour.

Assessment methods

Assessment for this course is based on two written assignments - one short assignment of 500 words due half way through the course and one longer assignment of 1500 words due in the final week of the course.

Assignments are not graded but are marked either pass or fail.

Application

Please use the 'Book' or 'Apply' button on this page. Alternatively, please contact us to obtain an application form.